The Challenge

Reminder X, a to-do list and reminder app for iOS and Android required a more defined product direction driven by user insights. The stakeholders aimed to better understand target user groups and their specific needs to inform future design decisions.

Project Objectives:

Identify and profile the primary user base
Uncover user expectations and requirements for the app
Develop an effective design strategy to meet user needs

The Solution

Extensive user research revealed that users prioritized the ability to organize and share tasks with others, such as colleagues and project partners. These findings shaped the foundation for the app’s design strategy and key features.

Research Goals

Understand how users currently engage with to-do lists and reminder apps

Introduce users to the core features and value of the Reminder X app
Gather user-driven recommendations to enhance Reminder X’s functionality and offerings

Research Process

I started by creating a comprehensive research proposal that outlined the project’s objectives, timelines, and methodologies.

Leading the research process, I identified target users and determined their core needs, which informed the development of a primary user persona that embodied one of the app’s main user groups. This persona helped align the team and stakeholders on a shared vision through clearly defined design tenets. To translate insights into tangible concepts, I developed preliminary sketches that conveyed initial design ideas.

These evolved into detailed wireframes showcasing page layouts and user interactions, highlighting how users could seamlessly organize and share tasks. I also created process flows that mapped critical user pathways, ensuring an intuitive experience throughout the app.

Interviews

The initial phase of the research involved conducting user interviews to capture insights about Reminder X and its potential audience. The goal was to identify user expectations and needs from the app. Participants aged 20-35, with diverse backgrounds, were selected to ensure varied perspectives. They were asked 10 questions, ranging from general inquiries about their use of to-do lists to specific feedback on the features and improvements they desired in Reminder X. Each interview lasted 10 to 15 minutes and was audio-recorded for analysis.

Interview Findings

Based on the interview responses, participants were favorable towards the concept of ReminderX, an all-in-one to-do list, and reminder app. Overall, three major themes were extrapolated from the qualitative research:

The need for collaboration: Participants voiced their need for collaboration on the app. I recommended that the app contained a feature that would allow individuals to share their to-do list entries with others with who they may be working or collaborating on various tasks.
External Calendar Synchronization: Participants want the ability to sync their app entries with their existing calendars on google calendars or the calendars on their apple and android devices because it would help with the planning and visualization of their tasks. I recommended either creating a calendar within the app or making a functionality whereby users can sync their entries with their external calendars.
Automated to-do-list Entries– Participants were presented with the question, “Imagine if the app could automatically detect your schedule and set reminders for you based on previous entries, and all you had to do was review and confirm the scheduled entries. What do you think about that?” And there was an overall positive response to this scenario. It was my recommendation that this functionality is worth adding to the app.

User Persona

The subsequent persona (prototypical user) created based on user research, portrayed a technologically savvy female college student with two major frustrations:

The hassle of navigating through multiple applications when creating to-do lists.
Not having a single app where to create, separate, share, and navigate between her work and personal to-do lists.

Design Tenets

These are principles that guided the design of the application.

Usability: The design should be clean, simple, and user-friendly because this would make it less intimidating for a new user to approach the app.

Synchronization: People should be able to sync their lists with their calendars on their mobile devices.
Organization: Users should be able to organize their various to-do lists based on the function of the list.
Sorting based on priority: Make it easier for users to sort their tasks based on the level of priority.
Sharing and Collaboration: The app needs to facilitate sharing and collaboration for people who might use the app in professional or group settings.
Prickly notifications: Users should be given push notifications for tasks that need completion, this will encourage them to complete their tasks to get rid of the notification.
Productivity in automation: The app should allow for repeated tasks to be automatically added to users’ to-do lists. This should be based on the frequency of the tasks.
Relevance: The app should not feel dated. It should be relevant and up-to-date with current design and software trends in its industry